Select Local Merchants

Need to de-stress? Inhale and exhale your stress away with a yoga class at Movement Arts in Stanwood.
For a toasty take on yoga, turn up the temperature at Movement Arts.
Parking is plentiful, so visitors can feel free to bring their vehicles.

Want something more than just a weekend out at the bars? Bellingham's Bellingham Theater Guild offers the perfect theater to shake your weekend up.
Whether you want mouth-watering food or great drinks, this theater has the restaurant just for you.
This theater is kid-friendly, so little ones are welcome to tag along.
Parking is plentiful, so visitors can feel free to bring their vehicles.

For the love of spectacle, you'll want to get to Avalon Music, Bellingham's premiere theater.
Check out this theater's restaurant, where you can stay for lunch or grab your meal to go.
Bring your furry friend to the theater — Avalon Music allows dogs to dine, too.
Parking is plentiful, so patrons can feel free to bring their vehicles.

Come and see the theatrical offerings at The Upfront Theatre in Bellingham.
When you're out and about in the area, you'll love that this theater has a restaurant to take care of any last minute hunger.
Parking is plentiful, so patrons can feel free to bring their vehicles.

For top-notch performances of historical and contemporary plays, there's no better place in Mukilteo than The Connection Performing Arts Center.
Parking is plentiful, so patrons can feel free to bring their vehicles.

Groupon Guide

“If every single person on the planet knew one simple magic trick, the world would be a happier place.” Such is the philosophy of Joe Diamond, a professional magician who regularly boggles minds at The Magic Cabaret, a show held Wednesday nights at Chicago’s Greenhouse Theater Center. Diamond is joined on stage by David Parr, another magician who agrees that the world could use an extra dose of mystery. “As we become technologically more sophisticated,” Parr explains, “we think we know everything there is to know. Magic is a little reminder [that] we can still be surprised.” Anxious to be surprised ourselves, we asked Diamond and Parr to teach us some of their favorite simple magic tricks.Trick 1: “Full of Holes”This optical illusion turns an ordinary piece of paper into a clever x-ray tube. With this trick, the secret is inside your own mind.How it works: Roll up the paper to form a small tube, then hold this tube in front of your right eye. Close your right eye and hold your left hand against the tube, with the palm facing you. When you open your eye again, there will appear to be a hole in your hand that you can see through. As Parr explains, “binocular vision is a wonderful thing.”Trick 2: “Double Your Money”If this were anything more than a trick, laughs Diamond, “the US Treasury would get mad at me.” That’s because this one involves borrowing a dollar from a friend and magically duplicating it.How it works: To prep the trick, ball up a dollar bill and hide it under the collar of your shirt. Needless to say, do this out of the sight of your audience. To start the trick, borrow another dollar bill from a friend and ball it up in your hand. Rub the borrowed bill against your elbow (Diamond likes to tell his audience that this “heats up the molecules”). This distracts your friend while you subtly reach back to grab the hidden dollar under your collar. When you bring your arm back down, bring your fists together. With your fists joined, push the crumpled bills together and “pull” them apart to complete the trick.Trick 3: “A Million to One”The key to this classic card trick is misdirection. Working with an audience member, you sort out four equal piles of cards and mix them up while forming a fifth pile. Then, you spread out that fifth pile to show that, magically, it contains no kings. At this point, Parr likes to add some verbal flourishes to really astound his audience. He starts by saying, “You seem unimpressed,” and pauses for effect. Then comes the real kicker: “Remember, you cut the deck. The odds of this happening are a million to one,” as he flips over a king at the top of each of the four original piles.How it works: Prep the deck by sorting all of the kings to the top in advance. Have a friend create four even piles of cards by dropping cards from the bottom of your deck. (To ensure that the kings stay on the top of your deck, you need to be clear in these instructions.) Sort cards from each pile into the existing piles, as well as a new fifth pile. While you’re sorting the cards, only sort one card from each pile onto the pile with the kings. When it’s time to sort that fourth pile—the pile with the kings—sort the first three cards onto your fifth pile, then sort one of each king onto the first three piles. Display the fifth pile, showing that there are no kings. Turn over the first card in each of the original piles to reveal the kings.

If stage actors actually punched and kicked their way through action sequences every night, they’d likely be too concussed to remember their lines. So it’s no surprise that directors and choreographers have come up with several ways to stage a convincing battle. Some of these date back to Shakespeare’s time, while others came about only after centuries of painful innovation. Here are four things to keep in mind while watching the actors beat each other up:1. People have been faux fighting since antiquity.Shakespeare loved a good fight scene, but the Bard was far from the first to stage combat sequences for entertainment. One much older tradition, Japanese Kabuki theater, remains popular today and uses fight-scene techniques known as tachimawari, mimicking the fast-paced movements of samurai through acrobatics and martial artistry.2. You're watching a magic show.Fight director and movement specialist Meron Langsner put it aptly in a 2009 discussion with Tufts University colleagues when he called stage combat "a combination of ballroom dancing and sleight of hand," continuing, "I can make it look like one actor kicked another actor in the head when they're standing 6 or 7 feet apart.”It’s easy for film editors to make a slow-motion slap look as if it were performed in real time, but onstage it’s a matter of timing, balance, and eye contact. During a slapping scene, the slapper hits the victim on the fleshy part of the cheek and quickly pulls away to create the illusion of a full-fledged smack without any lasting damage. A “knap,” the sound of one body part hitting another, can be added in by either actor or a third party offstage to enhance the reality of the situation.3. Actors work with each other, not against each other.There’s a safe technique for every hair pull, groin kick, punch, or noogie you see onstage, and it’s up to the actors to trust each other enough to deploy these methods correctly. During a fight scene, if someone has forgotten the choreography, combatants will often meet in a grappling stance where they can speak freely to each other without the audience hearing. From there, they can agree on the next move or end the fight without spectators being any the wiser.4. For any fight director, safety is the first priority.And for good reason. There are countless cautionary tales of combat gone wrong—from live guns being mistaken for props to faulty aerial rigging—but almost all are avoidable when proper precautions are taken.

Imagine performing a dizzying aerobic dance routine for 90 minutes. Now add a toy-soldier costume and a pair of heels. Then change into a new costume and a different pair of heels eight more times. Oh, and when we say “dance routine,” we mean you’re performing 300 high kicks throughout those 90 minutes. Are you tired yet? Because you’re going to do the whole thing three more times today.The life of a Radio City Rockette isn’t exactly relaxing, but it is exciting. In its 82nd season (89th if you count the troupe’s St. Louis years), the precision dance company is amping up its signature Christmas Spectacular by sprinkling the audience with CGI snow, performing an acrobatic rag-doll dance not seen since the 1940s, and closing with the famous Living Nativity sequence.With all the energy that goes into performing the show and building up those iconic cabaret legs, we couldn’t help but wonder how these performers pull it off day after day. Rockette Amanda McCormick caught her breath just long enough to share what she’s learned after dancing—and kicking—with the company for five years.Stretch Those HamstringsHamstrings are “a big part of activating your legs to kick up and down,” Amanda says. If you’re planning strenuous activity (be it high kicks or hikes), she recommends this warm-up: stand with your legs a little wider than hip-width apart and bend over to place your elbows on your knees so that you’re parallel to the floor. “Then plié down and straighten back up. It really helps to engage and warm up your hamstrings.”Stay NourishedThis one’s obvious, but important nonetheless. No one can sashay for eight hours a day without lots of protein and water. “I’m constantly eating,” says Amanda, who likes almonds, high-protein bars, and hard-boiled eggs. “I’m also always drinking water, coconut water, or anything high in electrolytes.”Line Those Heels“We actually have a different pair of shoes for every single number,” Amanda says. “I like to add arch support and insoles to mine to make them a little bit more comfortable.”Carry Around a Rubber Ball?Along with a TheraBand, Amanda carries a little rubber ball with her wherever she goes. “I start out by rolling the bottoms of my feet on the ball, just to get the kinks out. Sometimes my arches really cramp up, so that really helps to get them loosened up.” It’s practical advice for anyone who spends a significant amount of time on their feet, even if they’re not attempting elaborate choreography or roundhouse kicks to a stack of cement blocks.Stay Active, No Matter the SeasonWhen she’s not prepping for the Christmas Spectacular, Amanda finds that “yoga and Pilates help with strengthening and lengthening out different muscles.” Even when the show starts, “a lot of us [still] go through a yoga sequence before rehearsals just to clear our minds and focus on the day.”For more fitness tips, visit the Rockettes’ own Dance, Fitness, and Health page.Shop Rockettes Tickets on Groupon Live:New York CityNorth JerseyWestchester CountyImages courtesy of MSG Entertainment